Strictly Come Dancing’s Shirley Ballas was hand-delivered a picture of her own grave being dug

Ballas was performing in panto when she was sent the hate mail

Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas has revealed she received a death threat through the mail while she was performing in a pantomime.

The note was accompanied by a picture of the ballroom dancing star digging her own grave.

Ballas wrote in her new memoir, Behind the Sequins: “Recently, a death threat was delivered by hand to where I was appearing in pantomime.

“This one showed a figure of me digging my own grave, with the message, ‘Do you realise how much you are hated?’”

The note also called Ballas an “old witch” and said: "The country hates you. How did they ever give a job to someone like you.”

However, Ballas insisted that she didn’t let the threat affect her too badly.

“What these people don’t realise is I come from a tough housing estate, and I’ve spent many years being ­bullied in my industry,” she wrote.

 “I’ve developed an exterior shell as hard as a hob-nailed boot,” she added.

Ballas has served as a judge on the BBC’s hit reality contest Strictly Come Dancing since 2017, having replaced outgoing judge Len Goodman.

The new series of Strictly begins on BBC One on Saturday 17 October, with the live shows expected to begin a week later.